When this season’s Annie Award nominations for animation were announced, it was The Boxtrolls — the latest stop-motion animated feature from Portland, Ore.-based studio Laika and distributor Focus Features — that earned the most, 13 including best animated feature.
The announcement has helped to turn a spotlight on Laika’s lovingly-crafted third feature, an adaptation of Alan Snow’s fantasy adventure novel Here Be Monsters, which pushed the boundaries of the century-old stop-motion process of moving puppets, frame by frame. Set in the Victorian-era, The Boxtrolls — with a voice cast including Sir Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette and Tracy Morgan — follows an orphan boy who goes by the name of Eggs and was raised by the thought-to-be-dangerous Boxtrolls who live beneath the village of Cheesebridge.
Laika CEO Travis Knight — who was a producer and lead animator on the film — said the aim was to explore what defines a family. “Whether it’s a nuclear family or surrogate family, the thing that unites a family is love and commitment to each other and a desire to look after someone’s well being, even at a personal expense,” he said, noting that additional themes include class structure and bigotry. “Bigotry thrives in darkness, and showcasing that people aren’t scary because they are different … we think that’s important to explore more broadly.”
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